Some of the most innovative ideas are simple, but not always obvious to senior-level leaders. Hidden gems reside at every level of the organization and, sometimes, all that is required is to engage employees in a conversation. Recently, a Peeriosity member performing custom research used iPolling functionality to ask Shared Service leaders, “How are you engaging your employees to hear their ideas?”

The member was primarily interested in informal engagement channels. While many Shared Services organizations have some combination of formalized quality programs, process teams, internal portals, and improvement programs, the member’s custom research was looking to find out what happens outside of these formal programs to identify other possible channel’s that are effective.

One of the two iPolling questions the member initiated resulted in dozens of responses from members with quality and improvement responsibilities within their Shared Services organizations from around the globe:

As with all Peeriosity custom research and iPolling, members have full visibility of respondent’s names by company, as well as the ability to contact them for follow-up discussion using Peeriosity’s integrated email system. Additionally, a discussion stream of comments adds further insights to the research. Some of the representative comments include:

One-on-One Discussions:

Continuous improvement is part of our culture. At a minimum, every Shared Services employee is required to identify at least two improvement opportunities during the year. They bring these ideas to their supervisor and they work together on the implementation plan, sometimes coordinating with others if necessary. It’s amazing how often unknown pain points for our customers are identified and resolved in this process.

Roundtable Discussion Groups:

Having rolled out Lean Six-Sigma and providing at least “White Belt” or awareness training to everyone on our teams has been a great jumping off point for us. During the training, each associate must identify two “waste or pain points”. Managers prioritize the ideas and hold Roundtable Discussions with small groups with those who mentioned similar issues. These usually result in quick wins for Shared Services and our customers and sometimes they result in formalized LSS projects. People take a lot of pride in being involved and seeing their input and ideas implemented to the benefit of all involved. The training gave them the awareness and the tools, but now they identify problems as opportunities, and look forward participating in a Roundtable Discussion to provide input and be part of the solution.

Informal Team Meetings:

We encourage “OTS” (On the Spot) meetings as soon as possible after a defect or issue arises. This can be at any level of the organization. Teams use improvement techniques (we have a continuous improvement program that provides training) to identify the root cause and propose and/or execute the solution, and monitor the outcome. Larger issues identified through OTS are brought to monthly Shared Services leader meetings for further discussion with the team members on next steps.  

Offsite Events:

We hold informal offsite events. The purpose is primarily team building, but it is also a good way to level-set our objectives and brainstorm solutions to our issues and how we can address them. We arrange breakout sessions with our customers present to get their perspective and input or we may review our survey results as a means to identify areas where we need to improve. The informal atmosphere and discussion sometimes brings out simple ideas we are surprised we hadn’t thought of before!

Other -“Ted” Type Event:

We tried something completely different and it has been a great success. We held an event where any employee could volunteer and present an idea or innovation (related to the company and not restricted to Shared Services). The presentation is limited to one minute. Company executives attend and the momentum is growing as we are having more people volunteer to be on the agenda. Some people have great ideas and, just given the opportunity, they will tell you!

How are you engaging and encouraging your employees to share their ideas for improvement and innovation?

Who are your peers and how are you collaborating with them?

Peeriosity members are invited to login to www.Peeriosity.com to join the discussion and connect with Peers.   Membership is for practitioners only, with no consultants or vendors permitted.  To learn more about Peeriosity  Click here.